The ‘freeSZFE’ political balloon burst in Brussels

Today’s meeting of the European Parliament’s (EP) Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) discussed the University of Theater and Film Arts (SZFE). The Hungarian left has repeatedly reported Hungary to Brussels, this time in connection with the implementation of the comprehensive higher education development program launched by the Hungarian government in the spring of 2019. The left has now created a political issue from the program for the development of higher education precisely because of the reform of the SZFE. 

As part of a comprehensive program for the development of Hungarian higher education, the rights of the founders and maintainers of the universities concerned will be transferred to trust foundations, thus the government will withdraw from maintaining the management of higher education institutions. At today’s hearing on the transformation of SZFE, László György, State Secretary of the Ministry of Innovation and Technology, and Attila Vidnyánszky, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the maintenance foundation, presented the comprehensive professional ideas for the development of the university. The new maintenance of the university aims to create a diverse university, significantly expand the educational capacities of the institution, establish close cooperation with the film and theater professions, and build a new university campus. As part of this change, the university’s budgetary support for 2021 will be more than double that of the institution’s previous budget.

At the Committee meeting, the former vice-rector of SZFE and the vice-president of the student government only voiced political arguments that are now known to the point of boredom. Representatives of the left-wing political groups of the EP tiresomely read their texts written in advance by their Hungarian left-wing colleagues. At the hearing, the representatives of the political aftermath of the past, an institution that rejects the new and is thus lagging behind, met the representatives of the institution’s new professional program, a comprehensive development looking to the future.

“It is unacceptable for the left wing to use students for its own political purposes,” said Andrea Bocskor, Vice-Chair of the EP’s CULT Committee after the hearing, adding that “The reaction of those opposed to the transformation is incomprehensible, as university autonomy and freedom of education remain fully guaranteed.” “Representatives of the maintaining foundation have repeatedly said that they are counting on the work of all current lecturers; they do not want to have a say in the professional methods of education and training and their content,” the MEP closed her remarks.